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A Pandemic Guide to Anime: Spy x Family [1]
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Date: 2022-12-31
Spy x Family
Here's a blurb for the Blu-ray: This might just be the most wholesome show about politically motivated murder ever made. In a vaguely East German city of vaguely mid-19th century East German culture, a cold war between east and west hides hidden battles between competing spy networks. A master spy known only as "Twilight" flits between dangerous missions with unparalleled efficiency, but is now tasked with making contact with an exceptionally wary and reclusive political leader. World peace is, of course, at stake.
The complication is that his target is so reclusive that Twilight's handlers can think up only one method of getting close to the man, and so Twilight, donning his new persona of Loid Forger, must reinvent himself as a family man, find for himself a wife and child, and infiltrate the elite private school that hosts his target's young son. Sure, we'll just go with that.
Oh, but the child Twilight plucks from an orphanage to play the role of daughter is secretly a telepath—she can read the minds of anyone around her, a skill she uses to finesse her way into the role and, when necessary, cheat on homework. That's our new young heroine Anya Forger.
Oh, and the meek office worker he selects for his willingly fake wife already has a double life as a near-superpowered top assassin known as the Thorn Princess. She's desperate for the fake marriage because as she nears 30, her status as still-unmarried woman threatens to attract the attention of her nation's brutal secret police. She becomes the newly minted Yor Forger.
Our family now consists of a top western spy who thinks his new wife and child are utterly normal, a top assassin-for-hire who struggles to conceal her identity in her new role as wife of an utterly normal single father and his normal daughter, and a blazingly not-normal telepathic child who knows both of her new parents' secret identities but can't let on that she does for fear of revealing her own dangerous secret. What follows are an unending series of spy and assassin hijinks as each family member uses their own secret skills to save the lives of the others while keeping their own identity hidden.
Anya, however, is having the time of her life. If you're a preschool-aged telepath, what wouldn't you like about having a master spy for a father and a mom who can destroy a speeding car with a single kick?
What makes Spy x Family work (and it's just pronounced Spy Family—the “x” characters in Japanese series titles often serve as silent punctuation) is over-the-top spy antics as seen through Anya's young eyes. Loid Forger isn't just a good spy, the man can disguise himself as anyone and has the combat skills to beat, to his knowledge, everyone. Yor isn't just a good assassin, she's a combat monster who could throttle the superspy without breaking a sweat. It's a Get Smart comedy, but one premised on everyone involved being skilled and clever beyond human limits.
The best animation does things that live action shows can't get away with. It might be bringing a world to life that practical effects just couldn't reasonably manage. It might be a series of reaction shots that would be impossibly corny in the real world, but become a language of their own when inked by a talented artist. The language of Spy x Family is in Anya's glorious reactions as she reads the minds of classmates, criminals, and two completely normal parents who regularly ponder murder as a plausible solution to even minor problems.
The side bonuses include Yor's hopeless lack of self-confidence despite her status as one-woman weapon of war, the inability of every non-Anya character to clue into what's being hidden from them despite being the best at their craft in every other context and, eventually, one very good dog. A very good dog.
RELATED STORIES:
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A Pandemic Guide to Anime: Non Non Biyori; Azumanga Daioh
A Pandemic Guide to Anime: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
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